A VISION FOR EGYPT . . . . 2 20 11

I LOOKED AT EGYPT AND THIS IS WHAT I SAW . . .

         Everyone is buzzing over the changes taking place in the governance of Egypt just now.  As I write, it is several days since Mr. Mubarak resigned as the President (read:  dictator) of that poor country.  He did so under the pressure of our own uninformed,

DO THEY WANT FREEDOM OR SLAVERY?
THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW!!

hesitant, and overly self-conscious president.  Everyone that is truly in the know is also rightly worried that muslim extremists like the muslim brotherhood will obtain a strong hand in controlling the new government -- either now, or in the near future.  This is what such devilish and dastardly groups try to do wherever they succeed in planting themselves.  And when they do succeed in gaining control it is never good for the people they presume to govern or the nations around them.

         I myself am and have been an amateur student of Egyptian history for years.  And even though Egypt is now filled by angry, dangerous, radical muslim elements; even though it has become a kettle of odd meats now brought to a boil, and one which might boil over onto the rest of the middle east; even with all that this devilish religion has brought on the poor citizens of the entire Middle East, there is still great hope for Egypt!  Yet it lies not with the muslim religion but with its small population of Christians.

           And if, by the way, any who read this think me too hostile toward the muslim religion, consider what Jeremiah said of those who were manufacturing similar religions in his time! 

BUNCH OF DANGEROUS, NASTY,
ANGRY MUSLIM BASTARDZ

Read his book and see what the real God inspires His true prophet to say of those who dream dreams, imagine things, make those ideas into gods, and then threaten others with death who do not worship their ideas?  Read his first nine chapters and you will see the REAL GOD pulling no punches towards those who practice and preach such things.  Then, if still you find my words and attitude excessively hostile toward the very core of islam itself, then also read this from the man who prosecuted the “blind sheik”, and who, like no other man alive, understands the danger of this idolatry.  The title of Andrew McCarthy’s recent essay is “Death to Apostates: Not a Perversion of Islam, but Islam” found here:   http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/260155/death-apostates-not-perversion-islam-islam-andrew-c-mccarthy.  Then, and only then, shall you know the truth, and the truth will set you free!

          But back to Egypt:  the peoples and races who have lived there have mostly been successful to the extent that they learned peacefully to harness and utilize the agricultural bounty of their greatest resource:  the Nile River itself.  Kings (by different names and titles)

IT'S BIG, STRONG, AND STUPID . . .
BUT IT IS STILL BETTER AND SMARTER THAN MOST
MIDDLE EAST LEADERS!!

and even peoples have come and gone, but The River has been a constant for perhaps tens of thousands of years.   The Nile, with its ebb and flow, its flooding, and its receding has guaranteed the rich and promising agricultural cycle that comes with its annual renewal of fertility. 

           But the bounty of the Nile comes not only in its soil replenishment but in its biological life.  One has only to explore the numerous tomb scenes from the third and second millenniums B. C. to see the depiction of the fish and water life that exist around and beneath its surface.  My knowledge of this led in part to a new vision for Egypt.  But Jesus Himself was the real inspiration, as He always is in every good thing.  


          And so in some moments last week as I saw crowds in Cairo around the wide expanse of the Nile, I saw myself there among them.  I was there with them, dressed as they were, watching them weave, shake, shout, and cry for freedom (or in some cases yell for power for themselves and cruel death to any who were different!).  I looked like one of them, I was dressed as one of them, but I was not one of them. For I was as I am now, a man of Jesus Christ, a Christian believer who knows One who is far greater than any Pharaoh who ever lived.  So I was there among them, a Christian in disguise, sensing the wrath,

EVEN DECADES OF STUPID, SELFISH EGYPTIAN
LEADERS HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE
TO SCREW UP THE GOODNESS
OF THIS RIVER . . . .

confusion, and longing of so many different human elements in this rangy crowd.  

         Suddenly I felt an impulse to walk down to the shore of the Nile which was some 50 yards from where I stood.  I made my way through the crowd of men who, strangely, parted for me with blank looks as I walked westward, to the east bank of the river.  They grew more silent as I passed by, looking at me expectantly as though they knew I did not quite fit in, and yet that I might be able to give them something that they needed.  I arrived at the shoreline in minutes wondering why I had felt the urge in the first place.  The same urge moved me suddenly to look down along the shore.  When I did this I saw a man sitting on  a slight rise

at the very edge of the river.  He was unusual in that he was one of the few sitting down -- apparently resting.  His robe was wet, probably from wading along the water’s edge – the easiest place to travel in the mob that was packed close together further from the river. 

         The man’s head was covered by a long clothe, not unlike the dress of other men who were standing away behind us.  Near him was a strange, old boat, the likes of which I had seen elsewhere plying up and down the great river.  But I remembered just such a boat from some earlier time.  And the man Himself:  somehow I felt that I knew this man!  I am not sure why but there was just something about him which caught my eye and held my attention.  As I looked at his head, suddenly he looked up at me.  The hood of cloth about his head fell back slightly to reveal thick, curly, dark brown hair with streaks of gray.  He

I KNEW I HAD SEEN THAT KIND OF
BOAT BEFORE . . . .

smiled at me with clear recognition, as of an old friend, and his white teeth gleamed in the sunlight.
        The light was bright at this time of day as it was about mid-morning and part of his face appeared in a partial shadow as the sun continued its climb from the hills behind us.  Nevertheless I was right:  I KNEW THIS MAN!  Instantly I fell down before him and bowed low in homage, stumbling half into the shallow water as I did.  I had done what I had to do in falling before him.  For I knew I had come into the presence of Almighty God.  I mean the One who is called the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.


"Get up, my son," He said in a voice which had to echo across the water -- nearly a mile across at this point.  That was my impression of His voice, but I had only a fraction of a moment to wonder that no one else much seemed to notice this man.
"Lord, it’s you!  You are here!  You can help this people!  They are so troubled and

THE MASTER'S DISCIPLES
HAD USED A BOAT LIKE THIS . . .

confused.  Their lives are in danger, and many of them do not even know it."
“Like sheep without a shepherd,” he said, nodding.  He had said those same words long before, but they sounded new and perfectly described their situation.  There was concern on his face, but also a knowing smile there and a burning light in his eyes.  It was the look of a man who had some great tricks up his sleeve and knew it.  "It is why I, the Good Shepherd, have come.” 

He looked away from me and out across the Nile.  On the other side you could see crowds of people protesting, similar to those on our side.  Then his eyes focused on the boat nearby.  It was rocking gently in the waves of the Nile.  Then he looked back at me.
"Paul, have you ever seen a boat like this one?"  It was the question I had asked myself earlier.  I looked at it more closely and tried hard to remember.  I thought of those old pictures from my children's Bible books.  There was a boat in those pictures that His disciples went fishing in.  That was all I could think of.  I found myself nodding.
“And now,” He said, “I make you a fisher of men.  Take my boat out.  You’ll find in it everything you need.  Launch out into the river a ways.  Then do what comes to mind.”
“And you, Lord?” I asked.  “It’s your boat.  Aren’t you coming?”
“Don’t worry, my Son.  I will be with you!” he affirmed.

I STARTED CATCHING THESE REALLY
BIG NILE PERCH . . . .

           He beckoned to the boat, and I waded a few feet over and climbed in.  I didn’t have time to think of who would shove the boat off from the shore – it was already drifting out to the edge of the current, even as I brought my leg over the side.  I looked back to see Him

smiling.  He gave me a nod and a slight wave, as the boat moved out to some 30 feet from shore; there it stopped.  I looked about and found a long cord line and some hooks.  There was even a large can of worms wedged in among some cloths at the bottom of the boat.  “Do what comes to mind,” he’d said.  I attached the hook to the line and baited up with a
worm.  Tossing it over the side of the boat, I watched as it slowly sank out of sight.  It was only just out of sight when the line grew taut and yanked down at a sharp angle.  I had hooked a big one – whatever it was.  I drew it in hand over hand and saw that it was a large fish of the bagrus docmac variety – a kind similar to the American catfish.  This one was two feet long – large enough to feed a large family.           

           No sooner had I dropped it off the hook into the bottom of the boat, than I had

They were beginning to build fires to cook the fish . . . . 

re-baited and recast.  I twirled the hook above my head in order to gain some distance with the heavy, cord line this time.  But it was only a second or so after the worm landed in the waves with a splash that the line became straight and plunged down.  I soon drew in another large fish, of the Nile bass variety – over a foot long.  I was smiling as I looked over to where my Friend, and the boat’s owner, had been sitting.  I looked in vain for He was no longer there!  Perhaps He had vanished back into the crowd.  Or just vanished, period.  But as I looked up for him I saw that several more people had gathered down along the shore and were watching me.  Several children among them were pointing and remarking at the fish I had caught.  I waved at them then went back to work.  I could do no wrong as it turned out.  For in a few minutes I had used up the can of worms, but had filled the bottom of the boat with large flapping fish.  Some of them had been caught on the same wilted worm – or even only half a worm!
         With a boat full of fish, a smile on my face, and joy and wonder filling my heart, I pushed over to the land with the oars I had found in the boat.  I felt the soft, “hushing” soundof the sand on the bottom of the boat and stood up with a fish in my hands.  The words I yelled out next came as naturally to me as breathing.  And though I shouted them in

English, all who stood on the shore understood every word.
“Come all and receive.  Cook and eat.  Share the blessing of this food.  These fish I give you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Son of the Father and the One who saves you.”          
            I tossed the fish over the side one by one, into some outstretched arms.  In much less time than it took to catch them, I had distributed the fish.  Before I could shove back out I saw at least two cooking fires flare up near the shore.  I barely needed to push with the oars, before the boat traveled to a spot the same distance out, but a little further down stream.  To my surprise the can of worms was full again, and I went back to work.  In less than half an hour, my worms gone again, and the boat full of fish, I rowed back to the shore, and repeated my distribution:   “Come all and receive.  Cook and eat.  Share the

They were like sheep without
a shepherd . . . .

blessing of this food.  These fish I give you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Son of the Father and the One who saves you.”            
Many people now saw what was going on.  They  out their hands to receive the fish.  They cooked and ate, and shared – and many hundreds were fed.  I shoved out when my boat was empty and repeated the scenario a hundred feet or so downstream, and even closer to the heart of the great city of Cairo.  The day was long, and I was growing tired, yet every time I pushed back out, I found the can of worms full and several spare hooks for my water-logged line.  “Come all and receive.  Cook and eat.  Share the blessing of this food.  These fish I give you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Son of the Father and the One who saves you.”  I called.


           But after awhile the sun began to disappear below the the rim of the world, and the worm can remained empty.  There were cooking fires now all up and down the Nile along the side where I had been fishing.  And as the large orb of that hot Egyptian sun dropped out of , I knew what Jesus Christ was saying to me and saying to all of Egypt.  “If you let Me  you, then you will eat and be satisfied.  You will be at peace with yourselves and you fill find contentment.  If you try to eat that which you find on your own, you will know only strife.  So let  give to you what I have chosen for you.  Eat and be strong.”

The early Christian symbol for Jesus came to mind .. ..

And that is what I believe the true Lord of the Universe is saying to all of Egypt just now.   and other similar things.  But will Egypt listen?
“ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’"  (John 4:13-14)

LBC